Sunday, March 4, 2012

RvB Membership Explosion

Members in both the Blue Republic and the Red Federation exploded almost overnight this weekend. I'm sure a few observant pilots noticed the ad for RvB at the login screen this weekend (I'm still looking for a picture of it if anyone grabbed a screenshot btw). Well you weren't the only ones. In Blue alone, there are almost 300 new members, and the average number of pilots logged in at any given time this weekend was usually around 90-100, which is almost double normal figures. Here are the respective membership charts for the two corporations, as provided by Dotlan

Blue Membership

Red Membership

I'd say the sudden growth strained the RvB directors a bit this weekend. I heard the influx of applications was pretty overwhelming, and tough to get the appropriate information out to all of the new players too. Also, our little rhythm of grabbing 15-20 pilots and meeting the Reds in Akon was a little out of whack too. It was no problem hitting 50+ fleets and often FC's had to take the advert down.

The next couple weeks will be telling as to how appealing RvB is to the masses. If all of these new players enjoy their experience, both corporations could undergo really massive changes in trying to deal with becoming some of the larger alliances in the game. I'd love to see the two corporations start employing multiple fleets or even themed support. The first thing that came to mind was a typical Cruiser/Frig fleet supported by a group of Tier 3 BC's to warp in and snipe. Regardless, more numbers should make for more ability to pick off loners in 1v1 situations and bigger fleet fights. It should be a great thing for the corporation unless all of these new members turn into more station humpers who can't undock without overwhelming odds in their favor. Believe me, I'm hoping for the former.